Advice

February 18 to 25, 2010

Pisces: The One, the All, the Forever and Ever

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Mars and Jupiter

Pisces The Aquarius zodiac month ends on Feb. 18th at 11:36 am MST, when the Sun enters the mutable water sign of Pisces the Fish. The twelfth and last sign of the tropical zodiac, Pisces brings us to a type of culmination and ending, the completion of one full cycle around the Sun.

Characterized by compassion, sensitivity, imagination and other-world creation, Pisces represents that part in each of us that is divine. It’s the mystical and metaphysical, the magical and mysterious, the spirit and the soul.

Arbolitos As I drive through Baja and enter the United States, I’ll be living, breathing and traveling that invisible thread that interconnects and binds us all – land, sea, plant, animal, stellar and cosmic. The One, the All, the Forever and Ever. Where Eternity and Now join hands, where Destiny and Free Will dance. May we walk in Beauty and live in Grace. Happy Pisces!


February 11 to 18, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Mars and Jupiter

Chinese Lunar New Year of the Tiger and Manana por la Manana

BlueOrangeSunrise The Chinese Lunar New Year 4708 – the Year of the Tiger – begins at sunset following the first New Moon after the Sun leaves Capricorn and enters the sign of Aquarius, based on when it occurs in China. In 2010, the Aquarius New Moon takes place on Feb. 13th at 7:51 pm MST, past sunset, so the Chinese New Year will not officially begin until sunset on Sunday, Feb. 14th, Valentine’s Day, giving us a chance to combine fun and festivity with love and romance.

Aquarius is excitement, new ideas and fresh vistas. It’s the season of more direct light and lengthening days. We feel a certain regeneration and rebirth. We have moved out of serious, cautious, conventional Capricorn and into a time of renewed hope and budding inspiration. We are wanting and willing to connect with people we don’t know, do things we haven’t done and try on hats we’ve never worn.

Ted Hoff, of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, continues his training discussion with this video about 13 week old Drake, a golden Labrador Retriever. Ted says Drake's socialization with appropriate older dogs is a vital part of his training. Watch young Drake...

February 4 to 11, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Mars and Jupiter

CasaSalado Well, it’s Super Bowl weekend and it’s the last weekend we’ll be staying at Cerro Salado, the magnificent casa we’ve had the pleasure of occupying for the last two months. The Moon is waning, rising later each night above the ocean horizon, shimmering it’s magic upon the Sea of Cortez. I’m feeling a bit nostalgic as the Jan. 15th solar eclipse lunar cycle draws to a close. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the memories and reiterated themes of the Capricorn eclipse in January of 1990, when we were here in Baja at Cabo Pulmo, building a little hacienda of our own. Bush Sr. was bombing Baghdad and I was doing laundry by hand. I had been poignantly aware of being an American gringa in a third world country, concerned about political corruption and the seemingly impossible dream of world peace. 

Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel tells a good story. Usually there is a training tip in there. His story about his son's remote controlled boat and a pair of English setters is no exception. In this case the main lesson is...

January 28 to February 4, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Mars and Jupiter

Unity in Diversity and Love with a Generous Heart

“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one affects all…”
                                Martin Luther King, Jr.

PurpleMoon The Jan. 29th Leo/Aquarius full Moon takes place at 11:18 p.m. MST @ 10º14’ and brings to fruition the late degree Capricorn new Moon solar eclipse cycle of Jan. 15th. This promises us a powerful lunation filled with plenty of social interaction and charismatic attraction. Leo/Aquarius full Moons – one in summer and one in winter – are the year’s two most flamboyant “party” moons as the romantic, courageous heart of the Lion pairs up with the wild and crazy, inventive spirit of the revolutionary rebel, Aquarius.

FireMoonThis year, however, we are under the spell of a seductive Pluto/Saturn square that is forcing a shift in perspective via uncontrollable, inevitable natural forces. Governments, politics, economies - the powers that be - including the weather, i.e. global warming and climate change, are all raining and reigning down upon humanity as a whole. We are no longer alone in this, not as a country, class or individual. Therefore, expect this week’s parties to carry a more serious tone, a collective spirit that somehow winds us all together as “one world” and “one heart”.

 

Our friend, Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, has sent another video of his Labrador puppy Drake. Drake is learning about his world around Cottonwood, including a surprise meeting with a pheasant rooster, and another with the retrieving Kitty.It's no wonder our...

January 21 to 28, 2010

Visible Planets:
Morning: Mercury, Mars and Saturn    Evening: Jupiter

Aquarius, Uranus, Creative Crisis and Catharsis

Aquarisu The Sun entered Aquarius this year on January 19th at 9:28 p.m. MST, shortly before the Moon came into a conjunction aspect @ 23º Pisces with Uranus, the Aquarian planetary ruler, paving the way for a highly charged zodiac month of sudden change and rapid developments, when we’ll be feeling awakened, excited and pretty much in on-and-off creative crisis or catharsis the entire time. And, believe it or not, this is good!

Surprised? Well, that’s both Uranus and Aquarius. Expect the unexpected, think outside the box, try something new, change your patterns, do it different. Aquarius is the traditional revolutionary influence, the part of us that wants freedom, liberation and the right to pursue our heart’s desires. It’s where we are truly individual and where we seek out other individuals with whom to share our wildest dreams, highest hopes and most idealist visions.

Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel shows us a training session with his one year old Labrador retriever, Mae. TIO has watched Mae's progress from an eight week old puppy. She continues to impress.A well-mannered dog, attentive and anxious to please, is...